Two of the fastest marathon courses on earth, two very different races. Here's every stat, side by side, to help you pick.
Indicative — based on GPX data. Both courses normalised to start at 0m.
✓ marks the better number on that stat.
London and Boston are both point-to-point Majors, but they part ways on almost everything else. London is open by ballot to anyone and draws close to 60,000 finishers across a relatively fast course (85m of gain) that currently holds the men's world record. Boston caps its field lower, admits by qualifying time only, and covers 265m of climbing on the way into the city — the toughest terrain of any Major bar Sydney or Cape Town.
London runs in late April with home-crowd energy along the Thames; Boston runs the same week of the year but is built entirely around the Patriots' Day tradition and the Newton hills. If you want the fastest possible time and an open entry, London is the easier route in; if you want the marathon that requires a qualifying time just to start, Boston is in a category of its own.